Sunday, March 31, 2013

This morning Ryan and I went out for our Sunday run. HE DID HIS FIRST FIVE MILES!! Whoooo hoooo!!

We have been working up our Sunday runs now for a couple months. Two months ago we were doing 3 miles every Sunday. Last month we were going 4 miles every Sunday. AND TODAY HE RAN HIS FIRST FIVE MILER!!

We went down to the beach to run on my 'normal' route (since the routes around our house have a lot of loops and I told him for me it was easier to go out for a straight 2.5 miles and then turn back [because in my head you are already 2.5 miles away form your car, you have to go back - and might as well run it so you get back quicker :) ]). It was pretty busy, especially for being Easter - but hey, that is one thing I like about where we live - so many active people.

We kept a good pace (especially because he didn't want to go out too fast and not be able to finish strong), but did start our kick a little too early (he kicked it into high gear around mile 4.5 and then we had to keep it up for the whole last half mile). [Now to improve the time little by little over the next 3 weeks before we bump it up to 6 miles :)]

After we got back to the truck there was a lady getting ready to go down to the beach. I told Ryan we had to commemorate the moment. I asked her if she would take our picture for us - since he had just ran his first five miles. She said of course (and that she had actually just finished up five miles of her own).

Recovery week. Although the race on Sunday was only a 15K (in my head 'not as long as a half marathon'), I still wanted to make sure that I took it somewhat easy to give my body time to recover from the hilly and hard race.

My next race isn't for a couple weeks, and it is a SUPER FUN obstacle course 5K, so nothing that needs crazy training, but I do have a couple races after that come up pretty quickly, so I still need to keep on my schedule. I am GOING TO get some speed work in this week - or at least I better! I have been saying that I am going to get back into it for a couple weeks now (since the time change) and haven't done any. THIS IS THE WEEK!

Thursday, March 28, 2013

These commercials make me chuckle. Ryan said that I can do the 'We want more' part perfectly (not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not). Now we say it for sports - like 'We want more goals, we like them so much we just want more' or 'We want more baskets, we want more, we want more.'

"I wish I was back to a human""Tape a cheetah to her back""We want more""It rhymes with flash... close"

Ryan and I went up to Anaheim on Friday. We had been talking about going to a Red Wings game since last season. When the NHL started the season off in a Lockout we were worried we wouldn’t be able to see them this year. Thankfully the bigwigs and players came to an agreement and the season (albeit much shorter) was back on. Another positive for us was that the games that the Wings were scheduled to come out to the West Coast were later in the year and were still scheduled to take place.

Normally we would go for the cheap seats (I mean, as you know, I am pretty frugal when it comes to money and spending it willy-nilly [especially when it comes to spending it on myself]), but we were set to get a decent tax return and with the rumors that the NHL would be rearranging the conferences this year and the Wings might not be in the West any longer we thought it might be the last time we could see them for a while – so we splurged for the ‘good seats’. [Just in case you didn’t know, the league did rearrange the divisions and the Red Wings are no longer in the West – so good thing we went for it]. We were about 15 rows off the blue line across from the players’ benches – not too shabby (we did get a great deal on the seats though, going through StubHub and getting them for about $100 less per ticket than face value).

We decided that on the way up we would grab some Rubio’s – since it was my HALF birthday, they sent me a Buy One Get One Free burrito deal. We figured we would rather eat there (which dinner was less than $5 for the two of us – I guess one way to make up for the pricey tickets, hehe) and get ‘treats’ at the Honda Center if we wanted – that way we made the most of our money. The nice thing was we were even able to park in the Rubio’s parking lot for the game. It was only about a 5-minute walk to the game and it was only $5 for parking (rather than $15 at the Honda Center – again another way to make up for the pricey tickets, hehe).

The game was AWESOME! Honestly, it was one of the best we have been to in a long time (although it would have been better at Joe Lewis – but the funny thing was that it seemed like there were more Wings fans at the game than Ducks fans – TAKE THAT!). Not only did we win (always a plus) and won in a BIG way (5 to 1), but there were three good fights and one of the Red Wings players even got a hat-trick (meaning 3 goals in the same game). Ryan went to throw his beanie on the ice in celebration (that is what you do to say congrats to the player) – but come to find out it wasn’t heavy enough (or at least that is what he blamed it on [COME ON NANCY]) and it didn’t make it over the glass [PS I ended up going down towards the ice during the second intermission and retrieved it for him) – HUMOROUS!

We brought our good camera with us, even though we noticed on the rules for the Honda Center that you weren’t supposed to have a lens that extended over 6 inches. I was asked about it at the doors, but told them we wouldn’t extend it and the lady just told me to keep it down and walk through (THANKS MA’AM!). Well, during warm-ups we tried to keep the lens collapsed so that we wouldn’t get in trouble. A couple times we zoomed a little further to try to get some good shots. Honestly, we were so close that even the pictures on our iPhones came out great. Ryan told me that he is thinking about editing some of them and printing them off so that we can hang them around the condo… I will post some of the ‘professional’ shots soon; the ones in this post are just the iPhone pictures [PS The reason my iPhone pictures are blurry is because the case it is in makes it tough to take 'self-photos' and you have to push real hard and so my hard shakes].

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

According to the LRA Crisis Tracker, four LRA soldiers escorted 28 captives to Digba, DR Congo, on March 21, 2013, in order to release them.

The group consisted of 28 women and children. After reaching Digba, the group traveled to Ango. One woman reportedly drowned on the journey (the LRA Crisis Tracker has not received any additional information about how the accident occurred). The remaining 27 arrived safely in Ango.

Most of the survivors were Congolese, others were Ugandan, Sudanese, and Central African. The LRA likely released the women and children in order to trim the group down to essential fighters who aren't faced with the constraints of taking care of women and children. This is likely both a mobility and survival tactic - easier to travel between groups, fewer mouths to feed.

Who was released:

» 8 women (18+)

» 13 girls (0-17)

» 7 boys (all 3 years or younger)

This is the single largest return of long-term LRA members in over three years. The recent escapees made it clear that, still, "There are many women and children in the bush."

The report was called in by a community that is part of Invisible Children's Early Warning Radio Network. The Early Warning Radio Network currently supports HF radio communication among 37 communities in central Africa that are vulnerable to LRA attacks.

Holy Hills Batman! Or at least that is what I kept saying throughout the course on Sunday at the Hot Chocolate 15K!

I went down to San Diego on Saturday to pick up my race bib and goodie bag (which included a super AWESOME tech hoodie – that I have actually already worn). Ryan wasn’t able to come down with me (he was doing lunch with a friend up in San Clemente), so I decided to make myself a sign that he could hold up along the course, hehe.

I was really excited to see how this race would go. I have never done a 15K race distance before (just have had it timed during the three half marathons I’ve completed, but not actually gone out and only done that distance before). [PS For those of you that may be unsure how long a 15K is, it is approximately 9.3 miles]

Ryan and I headed down to San Diego around 5:30am on Sunday morning. Although it was early, at least it wasn’t 2:30 wake-up-calls like we have done for runDisney races in the past. They were doing the 5K first and then the 15K, so we wanted to get down to Petco Park around the time the 5K was starting (6:30am) so that we would have enough time to find parking if it was crazy busy. We didn’t have much trouble and actually found some street parking so that we didn’t have to pay for lot parking near the baseball field (which is where the start and finish of the race were located).

We walked over to the starting area as they were releasing the first couple corrals of the 5K. We took some pictures, got some water, and just relaxed while they got everyone started with the 5K.

I was in Corral J. When I first saw that when I picked up my bib I was slightly miffed – thinking that I would have a rather hard time getting a good time if I was 10 corrals back from the start. Thankfully I was able to contact the race folks through Facebook when I got home from the Expo and they confirmed (which I had a sneaking suspicions when I looked at the starting line map) that the 5K corrals were A through H and the 15K corrals started at I (which means technically I was in the second corral – which was fine by me [side note – I actually finished before some of the I Corral runners – whoo hoo!].

Good thing I wasn't planning on walking :)

I heard the announcer mention to the 5K runners that the first half was uphill but the second half was mostly downhill. Ryan has mentioned that he thought the course would be hilly – but I told him we were in San Diego and I wasn’t too worried. WOW! I should have listened to my hubby. Now mind you, my long runs (8-10+ miles) have large hills in them, but they are maybe for a mile at the most. Honestly the course was at least 6 miles uphill (and then the 3 miles of downhill were pretty steep, which was POUNDING your joints). Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself….

Ryan stood with my near the corrals while waiting for the race to start. Once we got closer to 7:30am (they had to wait for everyone to get off the portion of the course where the 5K and 15K overlapped, so they were aiming for a 7:30am start and I think they were fairly close to that), he went a little past the starting line so that he could get some pictures (the course was pretty spread out, so Ryan worried if he went to more than the start and finish he would probably not be able to make it back to see me finish).

I love having my photographer with me (not only is he a great cheerleader and photographer, but he’s pretty dreamy too). I know, I know, I feel like most pictures all look the same – I either have thumbs up, a wave, or a peace sign, but I still love it!

I have to say, although the course was the hardest and hilliest one I have ever run, it was BEAUTIFUL! We ran from Petco Park (where the Padres play) to Balboa Park (where a ton of museums and the San Diego Zoo is located) and back. We ran on a couple of the highways (or at least on-ramps and off-ramps), but for the most part we were running through Downtown San Diego neighborhoods and the amazing parks around there. At one point we were running through one of the parks full of greenery and flowers, running towards the Coronado Bridge (where the bad man punted Baxter), and could see the San Diego Bay in the distance. I ran with my iPod instead of my iPhone (and I haven’t exactly mastered moving photos, so even if I would have run with my phone/ camera the pics probably wouldn’t have done it justice), but thought this would have been a course to take scenery pictures along the way.

The course was extremely hard. Like I mentioned, it seemed like we were running UPHILL just about the entire time. Normally I kick butt on hills. They make me feel strong because I really can push through them. I think my mentality is that the quicker I can get up it, the faster I will be done with the hill, so just power through it. The issue was that the majority of the course was uphill – which is difficult to “power through”.

I was keeping great time throughout most of the course, but you could definitely tell the hills were playing a factor. I think mile 7, which had some steep downhills in it, my time was about 7:45, because I was cruising down the hill. I think mile 8 was more like 9 minutes because it had more uphills (what a surprise…) and by then my quads and calves felt like they were on fire.

The last mile or so was mostly downhill, so we were able to really truck on in. I saw Ryan near the finish line, who he was able to get some more pictures and even had the sign that I had made at the Expo the day before.

This lady was all up in my face... I think she was radioing bib numbers to the finish line but it made me chuckle

I was able to finish in 1:20:26 – which is not too shabby in my book, especially since I had never done this distance before and because I was not totally prepared for the course (neither physically nor mentally).

At the end of the race we got a Finisher Mug, instead of a medal – which I thought was a fun twist (even if I can’t hang it on my medal rack). We got chocolate fondue with all kinds of things to dip in it (rice crispy treat, pretzels wafer cookies, marshmallow, banana). We even got some Ghirardelli’s hot chocolate – duh – I mean it was called the Hot Chocolate 15K/ 5K.

As I mentioned, this was the hardest and hilliest course I have run to date, but it was also the race that I am most proud of thus far. I finished with an average time of 8:38 mile pace. THAT IS AMAZING FOR ME! I was planning on shooting for 9-minute mile pace for my next half marathon, which would put me around 1:58 finishing time. I realize that a 15K vs. half marathon is an additional 4 miles, but still, even if I can keep with about the same pace that I did for my 15K AND there are less hills, then I should be able to rock my next half!

Some cool graffiti on the way back to the car

I figured that my body would be super sore for the next day or two, not only from the uphills, but more so from the pounding of the downhills. I was actually pleasantly surprised that I didn’t feel too bad. I did wear my new ProCompression socks for about 6 hours after the race and did tons of stretching and foam rolling Sunday afternoon, which I am sure helped.

The 15K distance doesn’t seem to be a very popular one (at least around here), but if another one comes up, I would definitely consider it.